Fane of Shadows
The Fane of Shadows was a temple that journeyed the worlds on the currents of the secret Weave. The place had many names in many tongues, and was also known as the Temple of Night or the Umbral Shrine. Location Created by Shar, it served as many dark gods of many worlds, and as a gift of the god of shadows to their faithful; a sanctuary that journeyed through time and worlds. It also served as a bastion and armory for the servants of the twilight. It was located within the Lightless Lake (the Moonmere) in the Gulthmere Forest, but it only materialized during a certain date at midnight, and stayed only temporarily in each world for a short time. Upon its arrival onto Toril, the Fane appeared within the depths of the Lightless Lake in a diffuse, ochre light. The entirety of the temple was situated on an invisible platform encapsulated within a dome of air. The architecture included black-veined columns, graceful arches, and thick pillars all crafted from marble, basalt, obsidian, or ebony. The Fane of Shadows was guarded by a host of shadows inside the courtyard area. They were only hostile to those not subservient to shadow. Interior The courtyard contained a statue garden of hundreds of obsidian sculptures, all of them depicting the innumerable world's gods of shadow. Statues of Toril's deities of night and shadow, Shar and Mask, were among the collection. Beyond its doors it contained a long, wide hallway, the Grand Hall, filled with shadows and bathed in a low, green light. Painting and mosaics lined the walls, while tables and pedestals were hidden inside alcoves along it. These alcoves usually held an item of great power, one of the many gifts of shadow found within. Only one gift could be taken from the Fane of Shadows. A husky, female voice tried to persuade its guests in a perceived, familiar tongue into taking an item of power. The Grand Hall also contained the caretaker of the temple, who materialized from the shadows. He was an elderly man, with solid black eyes, and his duty was to serve his calling into the shadow. The hallway ended at a pair of double doors, which led into the inner sanctum. The inner sanctum contained a skydome ceiling of black encrusted in gems, representing the night sky of the world in which it then existed. The inner sanctum itself had a polished slate floor inlaid with an amethyst border, and in its center lay a black sphere bordered in purple: Shar's symbol. A horseshoe-shaped altar lay in the center of the symbol on some kind of black crystalline substance, under an area of ceiling of the blackest black, depicting Shar's moon. It was underneath this symbol where a host received the transforming energy of the greatest gifts offered by the Shadow Weave: the transformation into a shade. Black curtains lined the walls of the inner sanctum, as well as a mosaic of the Weave Tap. Entrance into the Fane of Shadows required either being adept in the Shadow Weave, or reverence to a god or goddess of shadow. Erevis Cale Erevis Cale was on a mission to stop the shadow adept, Vraggen, from taking the greatest gift from the Fane of Shadows and transforming into a shade. Vraggen's band of members (Azriim, Serrin, Dolgan) betrayed their comrade and killed him before the transformation into a shade occurred. Instead, they found and took the Weave Tap, a sapling with smooth, black bark, few gray leaves, and three oval, silver fruits, hidden behind the mosaic replica. Erevis Cale stepped onto the altar to transform into a shade in order to prevent his death. In doing so, he gained the powers of immortality, regeneration, and agelessness. He also received a tome of history and knowledge pertaining to his calling from the caretaker. References * Category:Temples Category:Temples to Shar Category:Locations in the Gulthmere Forest Category:Locations on the Dragon Coast Category:Locations in Interior Faerûn